AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government told the legislative assembly on Monday, that up to 1,606 government-run primary schools were operating with only one teacher for all students of classes 1 to 8. In 2022, there were only 700 schools run by a single teacher. The figure nearly doubled in a year.
In an ongoing budget session's Question Hour, state Education Minister Kuber Dindor revealed that the number of schools facing teacher shortages has increased in the last two years, mainly because of the transfer of educators to places of their choice.
Responding to a query from Congress MLA Tushar Chaudhary, the minister stated that 1,606 government primary schools in Gujarat had only one teacher as of December 2023. The state has around 32,000 government primary schools.
The state has more than 32,000 government primary schools.
The Education Minister stated that initiatives are being done to ensure that pupils do not suffer, such as appointing ‘Gyansahayaks’, or contractual elementary teachers, and holding teacher transfer camps.
However, Senior Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar, not satisfied with the answer, told the House that, "Despite previous commitments from the state government, the number of primary schools with only one teacher has increased over the last two years."
"The state government had informed this House in March 2022 that nearly 700 schools were functioning with just one teacher. Today, that number stands at 1,606. As per the records, more than 19,000 vacancies of teachers are still vacant in Gujarat. I want to know what the state government has planned to address this issue?" Parmar said.
Congress MLAs Kirit Patel, Geniben Thakor and Tushar Chaudhary expressed their displeasure and asked if the government has set a deadline to fill the vacant posts instead of saying the vacancies will be filled "at the earliest".
The Education minister, however, pointed out that, even though 1,606 schools were operating with only one teacher, nearly half of them maintained the student-teacher ratio of 30:1 as required by the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
"Among these 1,606 schools, 20 have fewer than five students, 86 have five to ten students, 316 have 11 to 20 students, 419 have 21 to 30 students, 694 have 31 to 60 students, and 71 have more than 61 pupils. We should also consider this fact," Dindor stated.
Education Minister claims that the teacher scarcity at these schools was caused by a recent transfer camp organized by the education department, in which many educators sought transfers to their hometowns.
Importantly in March 2022. During the assembly session, the Gujarat government stated that a total of 700 government-run primary schools in Gujarat are operated by a single teacher, a figure that has nearly doubled by December 2023 to 1,606 schools.
(With inputs from PTI)